Bulls making the grade were expected to fetch good prices when they got to the yearling or two-year onfarm sale.
Heifers had an extra test to get through, stud operator Paul Williams said.
They were now given two cycles running naturally with the bull but increasingly if they were not in-calf after the first cycle they wouldn’t be persevered with.
“We mate them for 42 days but I’m cutting that to 30 days and the five-year goal is to have the bull out for just 22 days.”
And that was after the calves about 200 heifers in one mob and 200 bulls in another were sent out after weaning to graze on the hills through autumn and into winter when grass cover was at its lowest.
There was no supplementary feed and they had to show they could put on weight and remain structurally sound, especially in their legs and feet.
It was performance through environmental pressure with high stocking rates on moderate to steep hill country and survival of the fittest, Williams said.
Generations, through father Hamish’s time running the stud business and now under Paul’s management, have ingrained fertility through the cow herd, achieving an excellent record he wanted to keep improving on.
“There’s no sentiment in the decisions we make.”
Underperformers were culled and the animals proving they could compete and thrive under stress were kept.
Of about 200 bull calves born in a typical year the stud would eventually select 100 for the sale ring 30 to sell as yearlings and 70 to go as two-year-olds.
Another 25 would go to the family’s big commercial beef farm near Taihape. The others were cull animals and the operation couldn’t have a good genetics programme without that, he said.
Paul and his brother Toby leased the land and stock from parents Hamish and Angela, who remained active on the farm.
Toby ran a separate commercial sheep business as well as running Angus cattle while Paul managed the Angus stud.
The success of the farm strategy was highlighted at this year’s record-price bull sales.
In June the two-year-olds sold for an average $10,161. The top price was $21,000 and one other bull sold at $20,000.
“There was very strong commercial buying,” Paul said.
And in late September the yearlings set another record with a full clearance of 29 for an average price of $6600, including a top price of $9500.
The beef price might soften in the months ahead but there was a lot of optimism overall. Farmers were paying up for quality animals.
For both the yearlings and two-year bulls Turihaua provided buyers with a three-year guarantee covering fertility and structural soundness.
The emphasis on bulls having sound legs and feet was based on the client base.
“Most of our clients are hill-country people so they need robust animals able to put on weight and carry it.
“We’re very tough on that. There’s no leniency. You can’t let a marginal animal let the business down.”
The belief was that weaners grazing out steep paddocks encouraged them to become better foragers later.
Between 70% and 80% of the bulls ended up with repeat buyers from the East Coast, Hawke’s Bay, Taihape, and Wanganui areas though some went to the South Island and further afield in the North Island.
The Williams’ liked to deliver the bulls to their buyers in the main buying regions, mainly to get around their clients and partly to check how their older bulls from previous sales were progressing.
They had also been selling semen from their best bulls for a long time, with a focus now on building sales in South America.
Calving ease, genetics, data recording and estimated breeding values were all important terms at Turihaua.
Williams was taking his cow herd improvement forward with an independent programme testing the key traits of fertility (early or late calving), cow efficiency, longevity and structural soundness.
Efficiency could be hard to determine and everyone had their own opinion on it.
His objective was a cow with good early growth but not exceptional growth beyond that, ending up with a moderate-size frame to help her cope well with drought.
The stud genetics allowed livestock to bounce back quickly once there was good pasture growth.
That involved measuring height and weight and the weight of a calf at weaning was also measured as part of the test.
With help from his vet, a modelling programme is under way to provide a robust ranking system.
Turihaua also had a large-scale embryo-transfer programme. Each year four or five of the stud’s best producer cows were taken to a Hawke’s Bay farm clinic and flushed out so embryos could be implanted in up to 100 empty cows. They could be Friesian-Hereford but the calves were pedigree Angus.
Some were sired by Turihaua stud bulls but imported semen from the United States was also used to bring in new bloodlines to continually improve the herd.
They were very selective in the semen lines they chose, Williams said.
Some US and Australian genetics, often bred for feedlot farming, did not work that well on the Turihaua hill country that was steep in places but also with good early country near the coast.
